Missing Pieces
I truly believe that art serves one best when it fulfills a personal need to forge a deep connection to the outside world, when it asks us to examine our daily lives, and when it reimagines the familiar. Bruno Catalano’s Les Voyageurs, or The Travelers, do just that.
Located in Marseilles, France, this series of sculptures depicts human travelers that are missing large portions of themselves. While I have never had the privilege of seeing these sculptures in person, each time I see pictures of them I am instantly drawn to the gaping holes in the human form.
The erasures always make me wonder what parts of their own lives they are missing, or maybe have intentionally left. Maybe a traveler leaves for a business trip and misses the birthday of his small son, leaving behind his heart as he gains his luggage. Maybe a traveler wears fancier clothes, sacrificing her comfort for a respect that will not be given to her otherwise. Maybe they are all leaving something behind accidentally. Maybe they are fleeing from parts of themselves intentionally.
Of these holes and the sculptures on a whole, Bruno Catalano has said,
I feel like this occurs several times during life and of course everyone has missing pieces in his or her life that he wont find again.
So the meaning can be different for everyone, but to me the sculptures represent a world citizen.
I don’t think I would have ever originally claimed that these pieces depict “world citizens.” That description, if it ever did come up, would have been far down a list of possibilities I see when I examine these works of art. But, after more careful consideration, I agree.
I love the way the surrounding landscape seems to both obliterate and be absorbed by The Travelers because that’s exactly what society demands of world citizens. To be both of a place and of all places requires tricky configuring of the self – a reorganization of one’s own personal makeup.
Though he is not an extremely well-known artist in the USA, I believe Bruno Catalano’s sculptures bring an honesty and vulnerability to the idea of “world citizenship” that is worth examining. No matter how many times one revisits them, The Travelers remain beautiful and unsettling, because they ask viewers to consider their own “missing pieces” in the context of their surroundings. I hope this opportunity for you to do so has served you well.
Margaret Iuni
The Junction Journal 